Secret Air Force Space Plane Touches Down After Mystery Mission

After 15 months in orbit, an X-37B robotic space plane lands at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base without a hitch, officials say.

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A secret unmanned space plane touched down at California's Vandenberg Air Force Base on Saturday after more than a year spent in orbit on a classified mission, U.S. Air Force officials announced.

The Air Force's X-37B robotic space plane was launched 15 months ago aboard an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida on March 5, 2011. An earlier test flight of a different X-37B showcased the only reusable space vehicle capable of achieving low Earth orbit outside of NASA's then-active space shuttles, which the Boeing-designed space plane resembles in smaller form.

"Team Vandenberg has put in over a year's worth of hard work in preparation for this landing and today we were able to see the fruits of our labor. I am so proud of our team for coming together to execute this landing operation safely and successfully," said Vandenberg Space Wing commander Col. Nina Armagno, according to Space.com.

The mission of OTV-2, the name of the X-37B that glided to a landing Saturday, has been shrouded in mystery, with some foreign governments questioning whether the U.S. has deployed a space-trotting spy vehicle or weapon platform for taking down satellites. Air Force officials have sought to quell those suspicions since initiating X-37B test flights in 2010, Space.com noted.

"This is a test vehicle to prove the materials and capabilities, to put experiments in space and bring them back and check out the technologies," said Air Force Deputy Under Secretary for Space Programs Richard McKinney after the completion of the first X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) mission in December 2010.

"My words to others who might read anything else into that is, 'Just listen to what we're telling you.' This is, pure and simple, a test vehicle so we can prove technologies and capabilities," he added.

The X-37B is 29 feet long "with a payload bay the size of a pickup truck bed," according to Space.com, which notes that "two entire X-37Bs could fit inside the payload bay" of one of NASA's space shuttles.

The space plane was in orbit for 469 days before touching down Saturday, far longer than the 270-day missions for which it was designed.

Built by Boeing, the X-37B is about 120 percent the size of the aircraft manufacturer's earlier X-40 glide test vehicle and uses a solar array to power itself for extended periods in space. It can operate 575 miles above Earth, far higher than sub-orbital reusable spacecraft like the privately built 2004 Ansari X Prize winner, SpaceShipOne.

The Air Force hasn't revealed much about what its new toy will be used for, but officials have left the door open for manned flights in the future.

With NASA officially ending its space shuttle program and ceding manned space missions like crew exchanges on the International Space Station to the Russian space agency, the door has opened for alternative means of lifting astronauts and cargo into orbit.

Boeing, which built the X-37B in its Phantom Works division, has said the vehicle is already capable of making unmanned cargo runs to the ISS, though the Air Force has offered no hints that those are being planned. The aerospace manufacturer is reportedly designing a larger space plane dubbed the X-37C that would be able to carry six astronauts into space to rendezvous with the orbiting space lab.

"With the retirement of the space shuttle fleet, the X-37B OTV program brings a singular capability to space technology development," X-37B program manager Lt. Col. Tom McIntyre said, following touchdown on Saturday, according to Space.com. "The return capability allows the Air Force to test new technologies without the same risk commitment faced by other programs. We're proud of the entire team's successful efforts to bring this mission to an outstanding conclusion."

The Air Force is planning another X-37B mission for the fall that will re-use the robot space plane that conducted the OTV-1 mission in 2010, Space.com reported.

Damon Poeter got his start in journalism working for the English-language daily newspaper The Nation in Bangkok, Thailand. He covered everything from local news to sports and entertainment before settling on technology in the mid-2000s. Prior to joining PCMag, Damon worked at CRN and the Gilroy Dispatch. He has also written for the San Francisco Chronicle and Japan Times, among other newspapers and periodicals.
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